Tale of elephants read to inspire bookworms

By
Bianca Perez

May 27, 2014, 12:13 p.m.

CHILDREN gathered at Cabramatta's Whitlam Library on Wednesday for a bilingual storytime session using the book Too Many Elephants in this House Today, as part of this year's National Simultaneous Storytime.

Picture: Gary Warwick

CHILDREN gathered at Cabramatta's Whitlam Library on Wednesday for a bilingual storytime session using the book Too Many Elephants in this House Today, as part of this year's National Simultaneous Storytime.

Trinh Nguyen (pictured right) of SBS Radio's Vietnamese program conducted a storytime session in Vietnamese to coincide with the simultaneous readings.

The picture book was read simultaneously in libraries, schools, preschools, childcare centres, family homes and bookshops across Australia.

Australian Library and Information Association president Damian Lodge said the event, which aims to encourage young people to read books, had more than 410,000 children in 2300 locations across Australia sitting down to read the story together.

"The 14th National Simultaneous Storytime is an important campaign that encourages more young Australians to read and enjoy books — turning them into lifelong readers," he said.

"This campaign highlights the important role libraries play in promoting literacy in communities around Australia."

This year the association and SBS created audio book versions of Too Many Elephants in this House in 13 languages other than English.

Too Many Elephants in this House was written by Australian author and illustrator Ursula Dubosarsky with Andrew Joyner.